Ahead of the first TV debate in the run-up to polling day on 4 July, Sir Robert Chote, chair of the UK Statistics Authority, wrote to the main political parties to warn them about “ensuring the appropriate and transparent use of statistics”.
Sir Robert said: “The work of the UK Statistics Authority is underpinned by the conviction that official statistics should serve the public good.
“This means that when statistics and quantitative claims are used in public debate, they should enhance understanding of the topics being debated and not be used in a way that has the potential to mislead.”
The OSR also recently closed an investigation into a previous claim that the UK economy was “going gangbusters”, which was later referred to by officials including Rishi Sunak.
The investigation looked at whether the phrase from a top Office for National Statistics (ONS) official was taken out of context.
Mr Sunak said in an interview with the BBC’s Today programme in May: “The facts are the facts. You had, I think, the person from the Office for National Statistics talking about the economic growth that the country produced in the first quarter of the year.
“He said what he said about that and I think he used the term ‘gangbusters’, so I will leave it at that.”
Mr Sunak was quoting Grant Fitzner, the chief economist at the ONS.
Mr Fitzner had told journalists earlier in May: “To paraphrase former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, you could say the economy is going gangbusters.”
However, on Thursday the ONS said that it immediately clarified the comment at the time as a “passing reference” to the former Australian PM’s remarks.
A spokesperson for the ONS said: “It was certainly not intended as a comment about the overall state of the economy and when the comment was made it was immediately clarified to those present that this was not a word that the ONS would use to describe the first quarter’s growth.
“We also put the comment in context for journalists who followed up afterwards.”
Mr Fitzner’s comments came after official figures showed the economy had emerged from recession.
The ONS estimated that gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.6% between January and March, meaning the economy recovered from the recession recorded late last year.
The state of the UK economy is expected to be one of the key campaigning points around the general election, with leaders of various parties setting out their plans on how they would improve growth and productivity.
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